Manchester United great Sir Alex Ferguson hoping to land £1m Saudi Arabia jackpot

Sir Alex Ferguson is hoping for a £1million win in a Saudi race with his horse, Spirit Dancer.

The former Manchester United boss has been involved in horse racing since he retired in 2013. Ferguson has had some big wins, but he did not think he would have a horse that could compete with the best in the world. Spirit Dancer, trained by Richard Fahey, has started to change that.

After winning the Strensall Stakes at York last summer, the seven-year-old was invited to the Bahrain International Trophy, which he won. He was last seen coming in fourth in the Group One Jebel Hatta at Meydan in Dubai. Now, he's set to run in the Howden Neom Turf Cup on Saturday in Riyadh. The winner will get almost £1m.

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Ferguson told The Saudi Cup, via the Mirror: "One of the great advantages of having a really good horse is international racing. We never dreamed, when I bred Spirit Dancer, that he would end up getting as far as this. We're so excited about it and after Bahrain we are quite optimistic.

"He had a little problem when he was three years of age, he got over that and he's just got better and better. He's not had a lot of racing. That's what Richard keeps saying, that he can race a lot more than he's been doing. So we're getting the benefit.

"The international element is something we didn't expect. I'd been to Dubai some years back and I was saying to myself I wonder what it's like to have a horse involved in it now we've got one, I'm enjoying it. Competing with the likes of Aidan O'Brien and the Japanese, you know you are up against the best, and we're enjoying it.

"It was round about